Desert Hearts Festival has announced the 2025 lineup for its return to the idyllic Playa Ponderosa in Northern Arizona this July 3-7, 2025. Teaming once again with Phoenix’s Walter Productions, Desert Hearts invites its devoted community back for a weekend that honors its roots – a single stage, unmatchable energy, and nonstop music amongst the pines.
Desert Hearts Festival 2025 Lineup
Tickets
Following its successful debut in Playa Ponderosa in 2024, Desert Hearts continues its evolution as one of North America’s most beloved boutique festivals – fueled by community, creativity, and a deep dedication to West Coast dancefloor culture. The 2025 music lineup features a cross-section of international heavyweights, fast-rising favorites, core family members, and Desert Hearts Records mainstays.
“I’ll put Desert Hearts Festival up against any party in the world. Nothing touches the vibe we’ve created. It’s 72 hours of non-stop house, techno and love on one stage, one vibe, in the great outdoors. And that’s not even counting the Thursday ‘Welcome Home’ party.
We’ve built this independently for over a decade, with heart, intention and the best community on Earth. It’s more than a party. It’s a movement. If you know, you know. If you don’t, 2025 is the year to find out.” – Mikey Lion
Billing highlights include legendary house purveyor Justin Martin, gritty bass veteran Destructo, mushroom jazz trailblazer Mark Farina, Los Angeles native Kyle Walker, meteoric riser Omnom, and Berlin-built powerhouse Andreas Henneberg. The stacked lineup continues with Collecting Dots labelhead Omri., the funk filled sounds of The Sponges, and rising star Ranger Trucco.
As always, Desert Hearts shines a spotlight on its extended family. Returning favorites include the infectious bass-heavy stylings of Mary Droppinz, Burning Man staple Tara Brooks, the unpredictable expertise of atish, Mi Domina founder Nala, and Detroit royalty DJ Minx B2B Kevin Knapp, a four to the floor favorite.
The festival’s commitment to showcasing innovative emerging sounds and boundary-pushing talent is further embodied by sets from a mix of global and local Arizona talent including Beth Lydi, Casti, Disco Zombie, Drew Dapps, Evan Casey, Kellen James, Ladell Ransom b2b Frank Terry, Peter Blick, Sean Watson, SoundSlurp, Sprout, and Wes Light.
Attendees can expect to be taken through the eclectic sonic soundscapes of the Desert Hearts crew themselves, represented by co-founders Mikey Lion, Lee Reynolds, Marbs, and Porky. Bringing the festival to a triumphant conclusion will of course be the traditional Desert Hearts Crew closing set, a moment that has become both tradition and rite of passage for longtime fans and newcomers alike.
The 2025 edition will once again feature Desert Hearts Festival’s foundational ‘one-stage, one-vibe’ format, an art car arena encircling the stage with theme camps, immersive art, visionary installations, and a forest of fire-breathing sculptures that blur the lines between festival and open-air gallery. It’s a setting designed for total freedom – tucked into a private stretch of the world’s largest ponderosa pine forest at 7,000 feet elevation, just 30 minutes outside Flagstaff.
For those in pursuit of full sensory immersion, Desert Hearts Festival will provide attendees access to a host theme camps including Pile Palace, which hosts a plush dancefloor lounge and free beverages to patrons, the Dreamscape Collective Art Gallery featuring a tea lounge alongside visionary art, spiritual wellness at the Healing Sanctuary, and a Walter Theme Camp and art car arena around the dance floor, plus a vendor village with craft and clothing vendors as well as a variety of food and beverage options.
The collaboration between Desert Hearts and Walter Productions is built on over ten years of creative synergy, first sparked on the dusty plains of Burning Man. Walter Productions has become a fixture in the Southwest’s cultural landscape, recognized for its fleet of imaginative art cars- most iconically ‘Walter,’ the colossal VW Bus crafted from a decommissioned fire truck. Beyond their mobile creations, Walter has shaped Arizona’s arts and nightlife scene through spaces like Walter Where?House, Walter Studios, and Walter Station Brewery, along with their nonprofit, the Walter Hive. Their team regularly brings awe-inspiring installations, the Kalliope sound stage, and signature flame effects to major festivals including Bonnaroo, EDC, and Life is Beautiful.
The lineup reveal follows the recent announcement of the indepenDANCE Pass, an unprecedented $599 general admission ticket granting access to Desert Hearts Festival, Same Same But Different, Northern Nights Music Festival, and Joshua Tree Music Festival. The four trailblazers designed the initiative to combat increasing festival landscape consolidation and corporate takeover, mounting challenges that were threatening the lifeline of independent festivals.
Desert Hearts Festival remains a rare breed – intimate, independent, and fiercely dedicated to the culture it helped build. For those who value music-first programming, soul-charged energy, and dancing under the stars with chosen family, there’s no place quite like it.
Tickets for Desert Hearts Festival are on sale now via the festival’s official website.
Press Release
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